Middle East & North Africa

25 Aug 2021; MEMO: Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, yesterday announced that his country has decided to cut ties with Morocco over what he called Rabat's "hostile tendencies" towards Algeria.

Lamamra told a press conference that Algeria's decision to cut ties with Morocco will be effective as of Tuesday, adding that the decision came under the guidance of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Mumbai, Aug 25 (PTI) A court at Mahad in Maharashtra while granting bail to Union Minister Narayan Rane said his arrest over his controversial remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was justified, but his custodial interrogation was not necessary.

The order was passed by the court late Tuesday night and a detailed copy of it was made available on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (AP) — As police protected them, three Jewish men stepped forward, placed their hands out at chest level and began reciting prayers in low tones in the shadow of Jerusalem’s golden Dome of the Rock.

Jewish prayers at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, were once unthinkable. But they have quietly become the new norm in recent years, flying in the face of longstanding convention, straining a delicate status quo and raising fears that they could trigger a new wave of violence in the Middle East.

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — The electricity is out again tonight in what’s left of Zaki and Jawaher Nassir’s neighborhood. But from the shell of their sitting room, its wall blown open by Israeli missiles, twilight and a neighbor’s fire are enough to see by.

Here, down a narrow lane called Al-Baali, just over a mile from the heavily fortified border separating northern Gaza and Israel, cinderblock homes press against each other before opening to a modest courtyard below the Nassirs’ perch.

CAIRO, August 24. /TASS/: The banking system of Afghanistan will resume operation from August 25, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman of the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) said on Tuesday. 

"All banks in the country, including the Central Bank, will resume their work from tomorrow. We have carried out the appropriate preparatory work. We urge employees of this sector to return to their jobs," said the Taliban spokesman, whose speech was broadcast live on the Ariana News TV channel.

GAZA, Aug 24 (NNN-WAFA) – Israeli fighter jets, late yesterday, attacked posts and facilities belonging to the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman said that the attack was made, in response to the launch of incendiary balloons towards southern Israel.

The posts and facilities belong to al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas armed wing in southern, central and northern Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian security sources.

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - New Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett plans to push for a new Iran strategy during his first White House visit, saying he will urge U.S. President Joe Biden not to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

Biden's aides hope the talks will set a positive tone for his relationship with Bennett, a far-right politician and high-tech millionaire who ended Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12-year run as prime minister in June.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in Israel has reached 1,005,511, almost a year and a half since the first case was detected in the country, the Israeli Ministry of Health said on Tuesday morning.

Israel thus became the 35th country with more than 1 million infections, according to the World Health Organization.

The country reported its first COVID-19 case on Feb. 27, 2020, as an Israeli who had returned from Italy tested positive.

CAIRO, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Egyptian community, Al Azhar mission, and the Egyptian embassy staff in Afghanistan returned home safely in the early hours of Tuesday, state-run MENA news agency reported.

"Upon directives of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the Armed Forces dispatched a military plane to Afghanistan to safely evacuate the Egyptians from Kabul," it said.

More than 40 Egyptians have returned, it added. 

24 Aug 2021; MEMO: Turkish media says that a suspect, arrested for starting forest fires in the Akseki and Manavgat districts of the southern Turkish province of Antalya, was paid by unknown people to commit the arson.

According to reports, one eyewitness, a voice recording from the suspect's girlfriend implicates him in the fires.